Mardi: and A Voyage Thither, Vol. II (PDF, MOBI, EPUB, FB2, TEXT)
ance.
Winding our way among jungles, we came to a deep hollow, planted with
one gigantic palm-shaft, belted round by saplings, springing from its
roots. But, Laocoon-like, sire and sons stood locked in the serpent
folds of gnarled, distorted banians; and the banian-bark, eating into
their vital wood, corrupted their veins of sap, till all those palm-
nuts were poisoned chalices.
Near by stood clean-limbed, comely manchineels, with lustrous leaves
and golden fruit. You would have deemed them Trees of Life; but
underneath their branches grew no blade of grass, no herb, nor moss;
the bare earth was scorched by heaven's own dews, filtrated through
that fatal foliage.
Farther on, there frowned a grove of blended banian boughs, thick-
ranked manchineels, and many a upas; their summits gilded by the sun;
but below, deep shadows, darkening night-shade ferns, and mandrakes.
Buried in their midst, and dimly seen among large leaves, all halberd-
shaped, were piles of stone, supporting falling temples of bamboo.
